Portland's Lost Waterfront

I spend more time reading old newspapers than anything else. I suppose I should moderate my obsession  at some point, but I keep being rewarded with stories that unfold in my imagination in a way that is better than watching Netflix. Today I read an account of an sailor with great memories of Portland. He was Commander Fairweather, an old salt who had risen in the ranks of the Royal Navy and was then retired and living in house on a high cliff overlooking the Land's End near the fishing village of  Sennen Cove. Here he was introduced to some visitors from Portland, Oregon, one of them a reporter who jotted down some tales from Fairweather's days as a merchant sailor. Sennen Cove, Atlantic Cable Crossing Why, I remember Portland quite well. I was second mate on the Dunbritton in '97 (how many old-timers remember her?) sailing out of Rotterdam to Java, where we took on the first load of kapok that was ever shipped--90 tones of it--for Melbourne and Newcastle. New...